National Burns Collection partner Rozelle House Galleries is holding a number of events to celebrate Robert Burns at the Burns an’ a’ that Festival in his home region of Ayrshire.

The festival, running from Wednesday 30 May – Sunday 3 June, is in its 11th year and pays tribute to Scotland’s National Bard over six days with an eclectic range of events held at a clutch of venues around Ayr town centre, including Ayr Town Hall, Wellington Square Gardens and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway.

Enjoy a wide variety of live music events from traditional Scottish and classical to folk and big-name contemporary artists. The festival programme also includes many literary and poetry events as well as some great food and drink and fascinating exhibitions showcasing Scotland’s talented artists. Some of the famous names that have headlined in the past include Katherine Jenkins, Jools Holland, Frankie Boyle and Status Quo.

Tucked away in Rozelle Park is Rozelle House Galleries, a beautiful building which contains many beautiful artworks. It is perhaps best known for displaying the series of 54 Alexander Goudie paintings of the fabled Tam O’ Shanter poem.

It would be easy to overlook Rozelle given its close proximity to Alloway and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, but to do so would be a mistake as it contains a wealth of material relating to the life and times of the bard.

Last week, I spent two fruitful days digitising the collection held at Rozelle. All manner of items were encountered, from prints to jugs, and books to bowls! The combination of two and three dimensional items proved fascinating to work with. I’m currently editing the images created, so it’s not possible to preview any yet. However, you can view the full collection with the launch of the newly redeveloped National Burns Collection site.

The most important part of any Gallery, the Tearoom!

Sneak peak of the set-up I use to capture 3D objects. Who said digitisation wasn't glamorous?

Today is of course Burns Night, where the life and poetry of Robert Burns is celebrated up and down Scotland.

This year sees events taking place across Scotland marking the birthday of the bard. From the Birthplace Museum’s unveiling of a new £25,000 statue in Alloway, to the extraordinary range of events taking place in Dumfries as part of the Big Burns Supper, there really is a myriad of options for all Burnsians out there.

It should be remembered that Burns Night is not simply celebrated in Scotland, but across the world:

In the Year of Homecoming, 3,600 Burns Night Suppers were held in 80 countries, with only a third of those taking place in Scotland. Burns continues to appear around the world often in the most surprising places. Take the artist Chiang Yee, who painted Burns in traditional Chinese peasant garb. Or the recent story (can it be true?) that Michael Jackson recorded an album of Burns songs before his death. Where next for Burns? *

Not everyone see’s the positive side of Burns Night however, with The Sun columnist Rod Little giving his controversial view on Burns Night.

Never one to dwell on the negative, a recent post on the Facebook page of the Birthplace Museum pretty much sums up better than I ever could the joy of Burns Night:

And, on a day when pubs and restaurants are falling over themselves to find new gimmicks to get people to buy tickets to their own Burns Nights – from Haggis sushi to rap versions of Tam o’ Shanter – let’s also remember how this all started – with one incredible man from Alloway, whose remarkable poems and songs discovered the power of the common good that lies in every human being and celebrated brotherhood, love and liberty above all.

If you’re wondering what all these pictures of poems are, they were taken around Dumfries and organised as part of ‘Windows for Burns Night’. Several locations throughout Dumfries have had their windows filled with short poems following a call out for contemporay poems to be displayed in windows of some of Rabbie’s favourite haunts. A neat idea to fill up some empty shop windows and celebrate comtempoary poetry at the same time.

Part of my role involves helping Dumfries Museum digitise their own collections. I recently started cataloguing and digitising a case containing over 800 postcards inscribed with music scores. On the face of it this may sound a tedious proposition, but the collection contains a fascinating array of folk tunes, many of which have been unpublished. I also came across many cards relating to Robert Burns, two of which are shown below.

The tunes on the back of the cards were written by different composers. Presumably, the postcard acted as the most convenient method for quickly noting down the tune. These humble postcards provide yet another example of the esteem in which Robert Burns life is held.

There were of course no cards or postcards available during the lifetime of the poet. However, he was a prolific writer and correspondent, and had the postcard been in vogue he would surely have taken advantage of it. The poet and his birthplace in Alloway were the first subjects to appear on a postcard. So popular were the Burns themed postcards that several publishers produced their own ‘Burns Series’. One publisher produced an entire set on the celebration of Burns Supper, and lines or verses from his works were often used to adorn Valentines, New Year and even birthday postcards.